Netflix's How To Get To Heaven From Belfast is wordy, Irish, and kind of messy

What do we think about show titles starting with “How To…” these days? On the one hand, there’s a lot of goodwill towards them since How To Get Away With Murder, or How To Train Your Dragon, or How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days, or most prosaically, How To... with John Wilson, which I highly, highly recommend if you haven’t seen it. When else can say you watched a half-hour about scaffolding and loved it?

How To Get To Heaven From Belfast isn’t so accurate a title in terms of what the show’s about, as much as an indicator of what it’s like… wordy, Irish, and kind of messy. The new Netflix show from Lisa McGee, creator of Derry Girls, is either very much a spiritual successor of Derry Girls, or not at all, depending on your perspective. And the confusion in that statement *might* be the point:

The show is rich with the same megafast, hugely acidic unsentimental banter as Derry Girls or even Bad Sisters, deployed whether the characters are in life-threatening situations or run-of-the-mill car rides. That’s not me throwing all Irish shows in one bucket – I’m saying it’s a standard of Irish storytelling no matter who it’s about; The Banshees of Inisherin is exactly the same. (It is, however, me saying Irish people put WAY too much trauma on driving. Do you know how small that island is? They treat a three-hour drive like an ocean voyage with no guarantee of return.)